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God, Deities and you
In
this article I wish to respond to a letter we have recently
received from a devotee. It is all about deities and the God who
is supposed to rule over them. The devotee’s problem is basically
the following: It is said there is only one God. But there is also
talk of deities, description that particular deities deal with
particular issues/departments, that prayers for worldly needs do
not necessarily reach God, etc. The writer wants to know if all
this means that certain prayers of his to Swami get delivered to
deities instead of to Swami, and that his request does not receive
attention from Swami but rather from some lesser deity? What
precisely is the protocol followed in the Upper World? Why can’t
Swami personally handle these matters, and why does He need
assistants? The devotee ends his letter with the query: “I have
been under the impression Sai handles everything – and now this
new found info complicates my understanding regarding prayers and
their answers!”
This is an interesting letter. Many
people have similar doubts, and in fact, long ago when I had not
made an in-depth study of Swami’s teachings, I too struggled with
all kinds of doubts of a similar nature. Let us examine our
devotee’s difficulty in some detail. I would like to start by
considering what the statement that there is only One God means.
Swami makes this point even more explicitly. He says: “There is
only God and nothing but God.” That shall be our starting point.
The first thing that logically
follows from the above is that if there is only God and nothing
but God then clearly there cannot be any deities! At this point, I
can hear the listener say, “But listen, authorities greater than
you have talked about deities. Are you telling me they all are
fools?” Good point and I shall take that up next.
If we go back in history we would
find that in pre-historic times, people in all communities without
exception, were overawed by the forces of Nature. I mean, who
wouldn’t be? The power of a typhoon is not to be sneered at. As
Swami sometimes reminds us, “Has man made a fan that can blow wind
more powerfully than a cyclone?” So, these ancients intuitively
recognised that there was a power superior to them and started not
only giving names to the deities they thought were responsible for
these forces of Nature but also propitiating these “Spirits” as
they often were referred to. In fact, they devised various ways to
propitiate these deities. Thus, in this manner, the Greeks had a
god for rain, a god for fire, and so on; so did the ancient
Hindus. Indeed, tribes everywhere from Africa to America did the
same. I mean there was hardly any place where they did not worship
deities representing the forces of Nature in ancient times. The
names might have been different and the procedures of worship
might have varied, but all without exception did acknowledge in
their own respective ways the existence of superior powers to
which they all bowed. That is point number one.
Let me now move on to point number
two. Many societies were content to rest matters there. That is,
they were quite happy to keep themselves busy propitiating the
deities and asking for all kinds of favours from them. But the
more intensive seekers in ancient India decided to probe further
and concluded, in the first instance, that there must be an
overlord for these deities. The deities were like Viceroys, and
there must be a Rex or a King who ruled over them. Thus it is that
they convinced themselves about a Power superior to the deities.
That power was called God.
Now arose an issue. Whom to worship?
Some said, “Worship the deities for particular favours, and
worship the God who ruled them when the deities were unable to
deliver the goods.” Thus in ancient India, many started
worshipping Varuna the God of Rain
when the monsoon failed but prayed to the God who ruled
Varuna when they wanted progeny or
cure from illness and things like that. This is like going to
different counters in a bank when one needs different kinds of
service.
At this stage, some thinkers said,
“Hey wait a minute. Let’s examine this business in some more
detail.” They did and came up with an answer that is best
illustrated by using the Bank analogy I just mentioned. In fact,
this analogy can be seen in action all the time here in
Prashantinilayam. Just go to, say, the main office of the State
Bank of India during the working hours. You will find that many
customers are seated with the Manager. Often, these are people
from overseas who have big deposits in the Bank. They may have
things they want to do like withdrawing some money, getting some
foreign currency cashed, making new deposits and so forth. For
every such activity, there is an assigned person and a counter for
conducting the transaction; yet the VIP customer gets all his jobs
done simply by sitting with the Manager. In the same way, these
profound thinkers in ancient India came to the important
conclusion that indeed all the favours one wants can be granted
directly by God and that there was no need to separately take
these issues up with the deities.
Doubts will not cease and some may
protest saying, “Mister, is this not short-circuiting the
structure inherent in Creation? If deities exist, it means that
God created them. And having created them, God also presumably
gave them jobs to do. What then is the big deal in by-passing
them? Is this showing respect to God?”
A good point, and so let us examine
further. Here I shall lean upon an illustration given by Swami.
Let us say there is a lady. She is married, has children, and
looks after the house. Now to her husband, this lady is the wife.
To her children, this lady is the mother. To the father of her
husband, this lady is the daughter-in-law. To the servant, she is
the boss, to the street vendor she is a customer, and so on. One
lady, but playing many roles. In the same way, God plays many
roles. Actually there is no such thing as a separate deity; it is
God Himself who plays that role. When we pray to a deity we are in
fact praying to God but without understanding that it is really
God who is functioning as what we imagine to be a deity. On such
occasions, God functions within certain parameters that are
normally associated with deities.
Let me give an example. A farmer
wants rain, and so he prays to Varuna,
the Rain God. If he is deserving, there might even be rain. The
farmer also wants a son. However, he cannot say, “Hey
Varuna, why don’t you be considerate
and grant me a son?” If he did that, he would be told: WRONG
COUNTER! Just like in bank.
So
what is the lesson? Simple. Treat God as the Almighty, and you can
place before Him ALL your wants. If you imagine that there are
deities, then you have to go this deity for this and that deity
for that. But forget deities and remember only God; then there is
single-window clearance as they say. I hope our listener friend
understands. The Lord makes this very clear in the
Gita, in Chapter 9, for example. He
says:
O Arjuna, I give
heat; I send forth rain as well as withhold rain; I am Death as
well as Immortality; I am Being as well as non-Being.
Those steeped in
Vedic rituals worship Me with sacrifices and pray for Heaven; on
death they would reach the world of the gods or Devas and share
celestial pleasures with them.
The pleasures of the
Heavens they certainly enjoy but merit exhausted, they return
forthwith to the world of the mortals. Chained thus they are to
the recurring cycle of births and deaths.
Kaunteya, even those devotees who
endowed with faith worship the minor gods worship none other than
Me though not by the proper method.
Indeed I am the Receiver and the
Enjoyer of all offerings made. But not recognising me in entirety,
they slip back to the mortal world.
Those who worship the gods go to
the gods. Those who worship the manes go to the manes. Those who
adore the spirits go to the spirits. But those who worship Me come
to Me!
Well, that is what the Lord says and
that really forms the bottom line. Incidentally, the
Brahmaarpanam
Sloka that we all chant is nothing but a reiteration of the
statement I started with, namely that everything is God and
nothing but God.
I now wish to take up another
important aspect of the remarks made by our listener friend,
namely asking God for this and that. There are many views on the
subject, with some saying we can ask God for anything as long it
is not bad while others saying no we should not burden God. What
is the correct viewpoint?
The answer is clear. Swami says that
if we must ask, it is better to ask God than to beg others.
However, having said that, I must also point out that God would
prefer that we did not ply Him with requests. Here allow me to
recall a story narrated to me by late Dr. Fanibanda. He told me
this many, many years ago, one night when both of us were seated
in the Warden’s Office in Brindavan – a Summer Course was in
progress then. Dr. Fanibanda’s story made a deep impression on me
and I have never forgotten it. This is what he said.
It appears that many years ago,
Swami was showering a lot of attention on a particular devotee. I
mean lots of Interviews, gifts, vibhuti,
rings, watches and what have you. There was another devotee who
was doing a lot for Swami but hardly got any attention. And this
other devotee who was apparently ignored neither felt bad nor
complained. However, others who were watching all this from the
ringside simply could not keep quiet and one fine day, one person
blurted out, “Swami, You are giving so much attention to A but
what about B? He is doing so much more and he seems to receive
hardly any attention from You. How are we to understand this? In
what way does Divine Grace work?” Swami smiled and replied, “That
is simple. A is all the time telling Me about what he has done and
I promptly reward him for that – all accounts immediately settled.
B is not cashing his cheques and therefore earns My Grace. In a
house there is a lady and also a servant. The servant does some
work and gets paid. The lady does much more household work. But is
the man of the house giving his wife a salary like he does to the
servant? No, instead he gives her his love, provides security and
takes care of all her wants. That is precisely the way the God
operates!”
Well I suppose that story would make
you think! Let me now briefly refer to the various types of
devotees who come to the Lord. The Lord Himself has categorised
them in the Gita, and I am sure you
are all aware of it. At the bottom of the totem pole are those who
want this and that, then come those who are suffering misery and
want that removed, still higher are those who seek Knowledge and
at the top are those who want nothing, absolutely nothing.
Instead, their prayer is like that of St. Francis, which, by the
way, we had published in one of our earlier issues – a great
prayer. I think the Lord would prefer we go to Him with that kind
of prayer.
Which brings me to yet another story
and with that I shall sign off. This happened some years ago. A
devotee had been given an Interview, and in the Inner Chamber
where Swami engulfs the devotee with incomparable and Infinite
Love, Swami told the devotee, “Ask for anything you want.” The
devotee replied, “Swami I want nothing.” Swami then said, “I know,
but ask nevertheless. There surely must be something you want.”
Again and again Swami urged the devotee to ask and again and again
the devotee insisted that Swami had already given everything and
that he did not want anything more. Finally, giving in to Swami
the devotee said, “Swami I shall ask for one thing.” “What is
that?” “Swami, I want everyone to be happy and to receive Your
Grace.” Swami was overjoyed and said, “You know, that is the best
prayer one can ever make – to ask nothing for oneself and the very
best for others!”
On that wonderful message of Swami,
let me conclude, inviting you once more to write to us with your
comments. By the way, I wonder if you have noticed that your
questions make our work more purposeful, focussed and also very
interesting for us. So, keep writing for we do welcome your
response.
Jai Sai Ram. G.Venkataraman
Source:
Radio Sai
E-Magazine, 15th April 2004
http://www.radiosai.org/Journals/Vol_02/08April15/03_Spiritual_Blossoms/03_Reflections/reflections.htm
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